BirkinBagBeauty's Best of 2013: Face Care

It's my last section of the "BEST of 2013"-list and I have found some gorgeous face-care newbies last year.

Serum:

Serums are my babies because they are the most effective and potent in targeting a 'problem'. Hence, if you would tell be beginning '13 that I would pick a cheap serum as my favourite, I'd probably laugh: I need a sure investment and normally that means €€€. Still, this 'baby'  has been my favourite all-rounder so far for an affordable price (review Nourish Hydrating Peptide serum here).

[Winter] Daycream: 

Trevano Organic Day Cream is a balmy daycream (think soft cream cheese) that melts easily into the skin. It absorbs within 2 minutes: not every balmy cream does that. Hence, my skin feels hydrated, calmed and is ready for makeup in a short time, perfect for fast mornings. Cons: No sunblock but I get that from specialised suncreens.

Face Oil:

 

I was on par between De Mamiel Autumn Oil & Bodhi Desert Rose Facial Oil. The total blend of aromatherapy & flower remedy made this oil so special that De Mamiel has gotten my vote (more here). 

Night Cream:

You might think I am doing a 'best of Organic' section, but I truly enjoyed the organic bunch the most. Aurelia Cell Revitalise Night Moisturizer is used as the topping over my nightoil. I see the results when I do: dewier, less flakies, more relaxed skin, and I miss it when I don't. 

Eyecream:

Eyecreams start to get important at 'a certain age' and they have quite the list to fullfill: tightening, hydrating, depuffing, combatting undereye circles etc. My favourite is Nourish Revital-Eye Kale Anti-Ageing Eye Cream. [recently reviewed  here]

Selftan:

There hasn't been another face-selftan that live up to Collistar Face Magic Drops Selftan (original review here). I've dabbled into promoted-by-Kate [Moss, not the Driveller] St. Tropez but what's up with the scent? So as Madonna once said, "Italians do it Better"

Mads not the selftan-type but she sure knows to preserve a t-shirt!

Multitasker:

Manuka honey has been a multitasker for cleansing the face (how to here), dabbing on pimples, healing small wounds, adding to masks, a hair lightener (see here) and for a antibacterial sweetener internally.

~ Those are my selections for 'Face Care' ~

My 'Makeup' favourites have been discussed over here and my 'Body'-pampering over here.

Summerisms

Welcome in mid-summer...

Summer is season that either appeals to you, or not. And even if you totally adore summer season, as I do, there are some things that are to be considered in order to enjoy it fully (and keep the negative sides of summer away from you).

First, the bugs, and I am not talking about pesky men, can be quite irritating when enjoying your summer drink. Browsing etsy I found this natural-based spray with the cutest themes from the lovingly named heartbroken mosquito shop. I skipped the ubercute sounding 'unicorn safe mosquito detergent' and went straight for the 'repel guys who are players' mosquito spray...

Ha ha, it is supposed to work in both ways: repelling both the pesky player guys and the mosquitos!

Honestly, I am not the most delicious food source for either mosquitos and players. But there have been some irritating bugs bugging me in my life.

I do not want to generalise either players nor mosquitos, although the mosquitos are a bit easier to pin down. Biting mosquitos are females, and players can be both male and female.

Only women get different names: when the female player has a kind of mystery surrounding her (or nobody knows anything about her) she is often branded femme fatale. The less kind word for the woman with a large capacity of man-magnetism (and the ability to act in a similar way the male players do) is branded 'sl*t' or something similarly unflattering sounding and meaning.

The male players...mmm, it depends on the level of game they like to stick...Some can indeed be pesky when they suspect you might not be into them...but some will go for a different target...just like mosquitos.

The side has the next description liste:
*Ladies are you sick of going to a BBQ, outdoor concert, camping etc. & getting hit on by guys, who are players & nagging mosquitoes just won't leave you alone either. Then this is the vegan, all natural repellent for you!! It's time to take charge!! It really works amazingly well (see ingredients below)!!!

This repellent has an extra essential oil in it for an extra kick booty, supergirl power move...Ahh, the power of 'Wintergreen Essential Oil.' So with the power of over 10 essential oils, all known to repel mosquitoes naturally...we must break their hearts & tell them to move on (in a very kind, earth friendly way of course).

To the ingredients:

Does it work? Ha ha ha, I cannot really point out about the players when I was wearing this, because some come in sneaky disguises of sweet-or-standard-looking-boys/men-who-are- supposingly-genuinely-interested in you (they come in different forms)...I did find the DJ looking at me at some point at a summer Fête, and DJ are often quite player-like. But he could not smell me because it was at some distance so I cannot really tell ;P

Mosquitos often go for other people too, but if I am alone in a mosquito crowded area they sometimes settle with me. With this spray, they even went away and searched for someone else.

The scent is still quite lemon-like, like those drugstore anti-mosquito repellants. It has an earthy note added to it. It would not be a scent I would like to sport for going out, or such, but it has that earthy vibe around it.

And when you have been sucessfully fighting the mosquitos and players, you still have to take care of not making yourself look like a lobster, or harming your preciously build skincells with those damaging UV sunrays.

I went for Japanese skincare to tone down those rays. That is somewhat random and somewhat decisively picked out by me. Sunblocks have improved tremendously over the last years, so the often hyped about French La Roche Posay has been having some fierce competition of other brands from other countries.

What I love about the Japanese sunblocks I have tried is that they feel really light on the skin, and do not make you look like a greased up person with sunblock --> they often are targeted for people with combination to oily skin, and often tone down the oilies.

I like to multitarget, and I like browsing Sasa and filling up my cart until I have reached the amount to receive free shipping. With these considerations I bought a sunscreen suited for both face and body: Mentholatum Sunplay Water & Sports SPF 130 PA++

It has gotten superb reviews on SASA, and I really wanted to know if it was worth the hype. Plus, I really like to be active when going to the beach, and the formula targeted for active people going into the water and doing sports was something right up my alley (instead of lying pretty on a towel, which is also something that is good, but personally I prefer to be more active).

I have tried it a few times, and it is really lightweight and effective against tanning. The formula is realy thin and liquidy, so watch out that you do not squeeze out too much when applying.
The colour is white, which is not too bad, because the whiteness will dissapear after application (around half a minute).

I also like the cute litte tiger on the bottle:

After a day with sunscreen on your skin, I suggest removing the sunblock from your skin, in order to let the pores breathe again. Well, pores can still breathe with the sunblock, but just like makeup, it is always better to remove it from your face and/or body.

For my face I use one of my favourite cleansing oils, for example Kanebo Naive Olive Oil.

For my body I use the least favourite cleansing oil in my collection. That is right, the least favourite (sorry Etude House Cleansing Dream, but you just stay too oily on my skin and I need to rewash my skin after applying this).

I am still too frugal to throw away this cleansing oil, and it works to get the sunblock of my body. I do not mind the slightly oily feeling that lingers on my body afterwards, but with my face I would mind, so it still has a function for me.

Keep it cool this summer (or warm if you like the warmth), keep an eye on those mosquitos and/or players, and be protective to your skincells!

Etude House Sun Guard Natural Covering Color Base SPF42/PA++ (2010 edition)

In my last post I lavishly displayed my lack of moderation in terms of buying clothes and cosmetic items.

Indulgence was my middle name...

I also gave a kind of harsh judgement on the latest sunblock from Etude House I bought. Most people who see my reviews also know that I often keep my judgement and review nuanced, even though I (personally) find it craptastic, it might always be someones elses treasure.

I am not sure if this sunblock will ever become somebody's HG.

Ok, what has happened that I found it so trashcan-worthy?

It is not in the packaging. Ok, the packaging looks a bit bland, although the sunny rays give the message across. It is clear that is is a sunblok with 'color base' and has a high SPF factor in 42. Until know, everything is quite clear and simple.

The first blob of sunscreen looks promising as well. I picked out the 'color base' version of the sunblocks that have been released for this year. I figured that they would work like a primer/brightener and a sunblock in one...

It is a light pink tone...

Spreading out the blob makes it more difficult. It is quite a pastlike cream, and it stays quite white for a long time.

Blend blend blend blend blend

Blend blend

blend

hey, look at that, there is still some white sunblock-type something stuck between my pores and over my skin...

In different light these is a slight sheen on top...

So, is it really not even workable as a base product? With so much white stuff over your face, there must be some protection?

Well, that might have been the case, were it not the fact that the next morning after testing the sunblock on some specific zones on my face (to test how these zones are reacting, and not if the possible breakout is coincidental) I had some congestions and some whiteheads....

Oh, and do not get me started about the perfume! It is excessively scented, even for people who are used to using scented products oftenly.

• thick white film
• suffocating feel on the zones where the cream was applied
• whiteheads and congestions the next day
• perfume overdose!

Al those elements make a product quite craptastic.

This surprised me a lot, because I also have the Etude House Sun Guard Glow Base in SPF 36 I bought last year (I never reviewed it personally, but lotuspalace, cocomotion, simplicity and probably more bloggers have reviewed it and loved it just as much as I do.

So, it has nothing to do with Etude House making awful sunblocks. Probably only this one is just not suitable.

It did not break the bank, because I payed $6.54 for it.

Products with extra UV Protection

Ha ha, the dodgy title of today's post is not the most catching and inspiring one. Still, after another week of being an OL (office Lady) I just had to write something on my dear blog, even though I do not have any exiting new news to bring.

I still want to show you one of my latest sets I am really curious about. I have read so much on Diorsnow from the famous beautybloggers online (Oh..Pretty and Fuzkitty are quite enthousiastic about it) that I jumped on the bandwagon and bought a trial set on sasa.com. I still want to try it first before I splurge on a new product, if possible.

It contains a tonic-kind lotion, a serum, a sunscreen and a powder foundation in a really matching colour.

All of these products have a high level of UV protection against the ageing sunrays...

The next powder compact with UV protection is from VOV: VOV White UV cover pact SPF 50+ in 23.

One of my commentors asked to make a mini-review of it when I posted a picture of it in this post. And yes, it fall under my title that it has UV protection, and a lot of it, according to the description: SPF 50 ++ and PA +++



It has the size of a larger mobile phone. It has a beautifully pearly white exterior. I think it looks both rather sophisticated and still fresh.


The compact has a double layer when opening. The top part contains a powder puff, so you can store your puff rather conveniently in the top part.


The lower part has the powder foundation. It looks much paler on this picture than in real life.

Colour:
I picked colour no 23, which was the darkest colour of the selection (here). I found it to be the right dept of colour, however, I also find it to be a bit too yellow, as I am a neutral to cool toned Caucasian woman. Still, I like the yellowness in the foundation during the cold winter I encountered, because I had lots of redness in my face, and around the nose, so the yellowness cancelled out the redness efficiently

My colouring:
I am a rather pale Caucasian woman, or, it sometimes seems that I am paler than the rest when I walk in the cosmetic store in the Netherlands, and most foundations offered always seem too dark for me.
In Great Britain I seem to have more luck when I browse the cosmetic departments, as I often find that they cater for lighter skintones as well. I even find lots of foundations offered to be too light. In the Netherlands, in contrast, they only seem to cater for the slightly tanned women.

Scent:
The compact has a light to medium old-fashioned powder scent, which wears off after wearing it for 5 minutes.

Texture:
One of the benefits of the texture of the powder is that it zaps up the oiliness that I have in my t-zone. It also blurred out the unflattering view of larger pores. It lasted for an average period. I had to reapply after approximately 3 a 4 hours (the t-zones).

Coverage:
The coverage is rather light. I would not wear this as a foundation product on its own, because it does not have the strenght to cancel out my irregularities. Still, as a blotting powder for an combined skin and to reduce the redness of the nose it is quite efficient. Thus, it is absolutely suitable to carry around.

Sun protective powers:
I am not quite sure yet, because the feeble winter rays have not been sufficient enough to make a judgement. However, I would not take the chance to use a foundation alone as a sun protector, even if it says it really has a high protection. I prefer to use a real sunblock underneath and still have some extra protection from the foundation. So I cannot say that much about its UV protection.

Price:
It comes quite cheap when ordering on gmarket: It only costs $10.59 AND you will get a gorgeously scented lipgloss of your choice (out of 4 colours) with it. Well, that is a better deal than I would get in the local drugstore. Still, gmarket is not cheap with shipping, so it only makes a good deal when you already have some things to order from gmarket, and you can add this as an extra.

Overall:
It is absolutely a good deal when you have NC 25 kind of undertone, or lighter when you pick colour no 21. It is efficient enough to blot the oiliness away, and it is absolutely not irritating. The downside is that you order it by gmarket, which can be a bit of a hassle for some.